Holyrood - ScotGov have outlined their Programme for Government

[ProbablyShouldntbut]

Lot of things as you'd expect ...
"We will consult on the detail of a draft Gender
Recognition Bill by the end of this year, setting
out our proposals to reform the current process of
obtaining a Gender Recognition Certificate and how
we will bring Scotland into line with international
best practice."

and

In the year ahead we will take forward the
recommendations of the National Advisory Council
on Women and Girls. We will:
■■ create a What Works? Institute to identify, test
and promote best practice in changing public
attitudes to and challenging stereotypes about
women’s and girls’ equality and rights – we will
work with partners to develop a framework for
the Institute and its work by summer next year
■■ establish a Gender Beacon Collaborative
to promote gender equality across Scottish
public life – membership and ambitions for the
collaborative will be announced later this year
■■ continue to lobby the UK Government to improve
parental leave
■■ support work to encourage 50/50 representation
at elections

'Work with partners'
I wonder which ones.
I work for a women's org and I will be surprised if we're asked as we're not Engender.
Swa and rcs don't poll their membership before making pronouncements either.

But also if I see 'international best practice ' one more time I will possibly vomit

Quite frankly that second part is a pile of virtue signalling meaningless wankpiffle if the SG is determind to continue down the glitter-rainbow path to full-on misogyny that they currently seem to be on.

I mean how do you Create a What Works? Institute to identify, test and promote best practice in changing public attitudes to and challenging stereotypes about women’s and girls’ equality and rights when you don't appear to know that women are adult human females and not also adult human males with special trans feelings.

And "50/50 representation at elections" - would 50 male/50 ma'am be ok?

I am so so sick of the SG and their progressive bs - they can bite my fat one!

It er... can't actually be mentioned, but it might be worth looking at the current pinned tweet from MurrayBlackburnMackenzie - @mbmpolicy.

Thank you, @LangCleg!

We've just posted an update on the work we have planned to follow up our paper in the current edition of Scottish Affairs which we originally posted on this thread:

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3652832-Our-article-on-gender-self-ID-and-policy-capture-in-Scottish-public-policy

Hurrah!
Found the crowd funder!

Oh bollocks I mean hurrah I found the pinned Tweet!

I already mentioned the unmentionable thing on the other thread...d'oh!

‘Gender equality’ means nothing these days as gender has just become ‘whatever you say’

Sorry! Hadn't seen!

But the more non-mentions, the better - right?!

'establish a Gender Beacon Collaborative
to promote gender equality across Scottish
public life'

Does this mean to open up anything that has been carved out / set aside for women and girls, to men?

A lot of men think it's sexist there are 'special' things for women and have been angry for a long time.

Does it mean equal access for men to women's prisons, sports, refuges, hosp wards etc? Officially I mean in law, it's already happened in practice of course

Hope you don't think my d'oh was to you Lang, it was to myself for forgetting that we're not supposed to mention the thing that can't be mentioned...I am a dunderheid!!!!

I wouldn't have minded in the least if it was!

And as you say, the more mentions regarding the thing that we're not supposed to mention is all to the good...hurrah!

‘International best practise’ from whose perspective? I consider international best practice to be not falsifying official documents and defining women and girls by their biology.

Defining girls/women by their biology (ie sex)
Not falsifying documents

International best practise can also bite my fat one along with inclusive, intersectional, progressive and a hundred other radge-inducing words and phrases...I'm hella angry today can anyone tell...

‘International best practise’ from whose perspective?

Scottish government seem to be too dim to realise that what they refer to as 'international best practice' is a wish-list, put together by a bunch of people with a vested interest, that a few governments have subsequently put into action.

There is no objectively defined, agreed and ratified 'international best practice'.

There is also the way that it relies on things being done in Malta, Ireland and Argentina.
Any other women's rights issues they should guide us on in particular?

Abortion?
Divorce?

This is the full wording from the Scottish Government -

'We will publish a draft Gender Recognition Bill by the end of this year, setting out our proposals to reform the current process of obtaining a Gender Recognition Certificate and how we will bring Scotland in line with international best practice. An Equality Impact Assessment will be published alongside the Bill and seek to address concerns which have been raised. We will hold a full public consultation on the detail of the Bill.

This year, we will:

continue to challenge transphobia
develop guidance for Scottish Government and the wider public sector on balancing trans rights and the rights of women, within the overall context of our clear commitment to promoting trans inclusion
establish a working group to consider steps to improve the lives of non-binary people
establish a working group to make recommendations on the collection and disaggregation of data in relation to sex, gender and gender identity
consider how best to improve the health and wellbeing of trans people, and ensure that children and young people exploring their gender identity have access to the right support
produce updated guidance for schools to help them to support transgender pupils, within the current legal framework, by the end of this year
All of this work is grounded in the firm belief that we will continue to protect and promote the rights of women and of trans men and women.'

At least the rights of women are mentioned but trans groups are mobilising, fundraising etc so there'll be at lot of work to do to counter their message. I'm surprised the govt kept the non-binary bollox in, I'd love to see a working legal definition of that identity.

This year, we will:
develop guidance for Scottish Government and the wider public sector on balancing trans rights and the rights of women, within the overall context of our clear commitment to promoting trans inclusion

This seems a bit biased for a government statement. Should they not also be promoting women's rights?

establish a working group to consider steps to improve the lives of non-binary people

I'd also like to see a legal definition of non-binary as well as a clear distinction between sex and gender. As far as I know, people don't claim to have a 'non-binary sex', they claim to have a 'non-binary gender'. So their sex is male or female, and their gender is whatever they want. I think this simple truth might improve the lives of those who are so confused about sex and gender that they have to label themselves in this way, and insist that it means they are neither male nor female.

consider how best to improve the health and wellbeing of trans people, and ensure that children and young people exploring their gender identity have access to the right support

produce updated guidance for schools to help them to support transgender pupils, within the current legal framework, by the end of this year

It might help the young people who are currently being indoctrinated with the idea that they all have a 'gender identity' if we stopped introducing them to such toxic terms altogether.

Note what's missing in that statement:
▪no commitment to challenge misogyny,
▪no commitment to challenge violence against women and girls,
▪no commitment to improve women's health and wellbeing, despite well attested issues in women being disadvantaged by men being seen as the standard and well publicised and serious increase in young women's happiness (big part of wellbeing after all).

As an aside, the whole thing to me also just reads like someone noticed that Invisible Women was making waves, decided to jump on the bandwagon but not being able to put two and two together (or not willing or npt actually understanding).

How anyone can hold up that book in parliament, bang on about its importance and then insist on pursuing a path that conflates sex with gender and culminates in planning a law based on transgender ideology is a complete mystery to me.

' An Equality Impact Assessment will be published alongside the Bill'

Will it be like the one the prisons service did about putting transwomen in womens prisons, with the section to consider the protected characteristic of sex simply marked 'n/a'

Will it be like the one the prisons service did about putting transwomen in womens prisons, with the section to consider the protected characteristic of sex simply marked 'n/a'

Link to the Equality Impact Assessment from this page:
scottish-women.com/2019/01/11/prison-information-sheet/

They couldn't even get the protected characteristics right - they list gender instead of sex and gender identity instead of gender reassignment.

Found via this thread:
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3654976-Concerns-over-housing-trans-inmates-in-womens-prisons

What's the issue with Engender?

I ask as I just realised I used to go to school with one of the people heading it up.

Engender endorse and promote transgender ideology and legislation. They accept as a woman anyone who identifies as one but cannot explain what this means.

They've been lobbying the Scottish Government hard to conflate sex and gender with the aim of replacing sex with gender completely. They have submitted to various consultation submission that were nearly indistinguishable arguments from those of trans rights organisations.

By embracing self-id, they no longer accept the provisions of the Equality Act (that a woman is a female) or the sex-based rights of women which arise from the EqA.

They refuse membership to groups who campaign to uphold the sex-based rights of women.

Worst of all, they have their fingers in every single thing that concerns women and their rights in Scotland and are often the only women's organisation consulted by the Scottish Government, the public sector, businesses or third sector organisations. where the public sector or the government.